FITCHBURG -- Most special-education students learn more academically and socially when they are able to be included in a normal classroom with additional supports, rather than being segregated in substantially separate classrooms.

Hehir, a Harvard University professor and author, was invited to speak to Fitchburg Public Schools teachers for the kickoff of the 2012-2013 school year.

He presented staff with an analysis of three Boston schools -- Boston Arts Academy, Samuel Mason Elementary School and Henderson Elementary School -- that have done exceptionally well with inclusionary practices. Hehir determined that, despite the differences between the schools, they all share some specific characteristics and practices that allow them to do as well with inclusion as they do.

At those schools, the leaders are exceptionally resourceful, he said, always looking for ways to bring in money and resources from outside sources, particularly health resources, because children cannot do well in school if they are not healthy, physically or emotionally.

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Teachers work collaboratively around problem-solving, and structured opportunities for teachers to work together are built into the schedule, he said. Students also have extended learning time.

Teachers look at the problems specific to their school and students and how to solve them, and have opportunities to design their classrooms based on the children who are in them, including those with disabilities. That allows teachers to do a better job "not with the kids we wish we had, but the kids we do have," Hehir said.

From the fourth-grader with intellectual disabilities who is writing his fourth word ever to the fourth-grader who is reading at an eighth-grade level, they all need individual attention, Hehir said.

There is a "clear expectation that all staff need to constantly improve their ability to address the needs of diverse learners," he said, and an understanding that no two children diagnosed with the same disorder will need the exact same supports.

"We need to recognize that they're all different -- that one dyslexic kid is not like the next dyslexic kid," Hehir said.

It is often the kids with significant disabilities who drive positive changes at schools, he said. All too often, those children are looked at as liabilities, not assets, he added, but those who can see them that way often say it was those kids that made them better teachers.

All teachers at the three Boston schools are "trained to be teachers of reading," regardless of what subject they teach, he said, and "integration of the arts is everywhere."

"I know that you realize -- but the broad world does not realize -- that just 'drilling and killing' kids is not going to make them successful," Hehir said. "Many kids are disengaged, and it's not because you're not the best teacher in the world. It's because they don't find the material engaging. The arts are a way to engage kids."

Boston Arts Academy is teaching kids trigonometric functions through dance, he said, and the two elementary schools have an "amazing" amount of arts, both visual and performing.

Hehir said there is "no question" that engagement with the arts reinforces academic achievement.

Superintendent of Schools Andre Ravenelle agrees.

"Public schools need to be comprehensive," he said. "We need to offer every opportunity, whether it be sports, art or band, to students, because each one of those is the reason that some kid is coming to school every day."

Ravenelle said he did not know Hehir would be using an art school as an example, and felt it to be "serendipitous," along with the performance by Wil Darcangelo and the Tribe, a musical partnership of professional performers and local students, some of whom have physical and intellectual disabilities.

"Here they are, all performing," Ravenelle said. "They get together, they have a goal and high expectations of what they can deliver. We went full circle, from theory and data to practice, at the end of the assembly."

Ravenelle said Hehir's way of thinking when it comes to inclusion "holds everyone accountable for success."

"School systems, teachers, students -- all of us play a role," he added.

While "inclusion is the right thing to do," Hehir said, he acknowledged that "it's not an easy thing to do."

Memorial Middle School special-education teacher Deb King said she thinks the district is doing a lot of things right, but that it hasn't gotten to the point where it can include all special-education students in normal classrooms, both in financial and parent support.

"Sadly, it comes down to money," Longsjo Middle School social-studies teacher Beth Kaake agreed. "We'd love to have two adults in each classroom. We believe it would be a better use of money. How do we make that happen?"

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